When he was 9, Scott Milne went to the Champlain Valley Fair, where Deane Davis, the Republican candidate who would go on to win the governor's race, offered the boy $3 to plaster campaign bumper stickers around the fairgrounds. Milne eagerly took on the task.

For fun as a kid in the 1970s, Milne would hitchhike from his home in the rural town of Washington into the capital, Montpelier. Sometimes he would ride the elevator of the Pavilion Building just hoping to catch a glimpse of Democratic Gov. Tom Salmon.

As a young adult, Milne came home to Vermont to work on the 1980 U.S. Senate primary campaign of Republican Stewart Ledbetter, father of the current WPTZ-TV news reporter. Two decades later, Milne campaigned door-to-door for his mother, Marion Milne, as she fought to hold onto her legislative seat in the aftermath of divisive civil-unions legislation.

Although he has never held elected office himself, Milne is drawn to politics like a magnet to metal.

This month, Milne became a surprise candidate to challenge two-term incumbent Democratic Gov. Peter Shumlin. Milne is vying to ride that elevator in the Pavilion Building and make himself at home in the governor's fifth-floor corner office.

Milne makes this run for the highest elected office in state government even though he had a front-row seat to the pain politics can deliver. He watched his mother become the target of an angry backlash over her vote for civil unions in 2000, which cost her the election that year. Years earlier, he watched his father, Don Milne, weather highly publicized legal troubles while he was a sitting legislator. Both incidents took a tall toll, though time also would bring redemption in both cases.

Scott Milne's takeaway from all that: Politics can be rewarding. He learned, he said, "very clearly that one person can make a difference and that being engaged in politics is personally rewarding and offers opportunities to make a contribution."

His background establishes him simultaneously as politically attuned and politically untested.

Buy Photo

Scott Milne, president of Milne Travel, talks with guests at the Chittenden County Republican Party’s 2nd Annual George Schiavone Legislative Appreciation Night in South Burlington on May 28.
(Photo11:
EMILY McMANAMY/FREE PRESS FILE
)

Becoming a candidate

Milne, 55, of North Pomfret, a divorced father of two grown children, has spent the past 27 years working at Milne Travel, a company his parents started in 1975 and that he now runs.

Milne's only personal foray toward elected office was in 2006, when he lost a bid for a Windsor County House seat by 100 votes. Plenty of people have told him he should run again for the House or for the state Senate. Milne opted instead to make an unusually late entry into the governor's race, already at least $1 million behind in fundraising to Shumlin and still learning how to hone his message, still crafting a campaign website and trying to find a campaign manager with a goal of officially kicking off his campaign within the next couple weeks.

Republicans look at Milne as their strongest hope to challenge Shumlin on policies they see as a danger to the state's economy. Milne said he plans to focus his campaign on "pocketbook" issues, including property taxes and questions about the cost of Shumlin's plans to launch a first-in-the-nation government-financed health coverage system.

Milne faces two other candidates with less high-profile support, Emily Peyton and Steve Berry, in the Republican primary.

Milne has in his corner former Gov. Jim Douglas and current Lt. Gov. Phil Scott, the Republican Party's two highest-profile successful candidates in recent years. But Milne himself conceded, "There are some people who are respected leaders in our party who are skeptical of my credibility."

Douglas, who served eight years as governor before retiring in 2011, thinks Milne is credible."I don't think Vermonters feel like the recession is over in their lives," Douglas said. "I think Scott's got a good message to take to Vermonters. I think Vermonters will be receptive."

Lt. Gov. Scott supports Milne, too, but said he was surprised when Milne called this spring to ask advice about running for governor. "I thought he wanted to talk to me about running for the Legislature," Scott said.

Scott said he was frank with Milne that running for statewide office is difficult. "I said it probably stronger than that," Scott said. "It's a lot of work. You're putting your life on hold. It affects your business and your family."

Shumlin declined to discuss Milne when asked about him last week. Shumlin reiterated that he will steer clear of talking about the campaign until Labor Day, though at the same time he has been raising money for his re-election bid.

Other Democrats look on Milne's campaign with curiosity.

Sen. Philip Baruth, a Chittenden County Democrat, said he's bewildered at Milne's late launch, his seemingly self-defeating comments about his long-shot chances of winning and his reticence at getting into detail about issues.

"There's this tentative halfheartedness to his campaign," Baruth said. "He's letting you know he's a critic, but he's going to let you know later what his specific criticisms are. There's an unspoken feeling that he doesn't really want it."

"It's either a brilliant strategy that will prove itself on Election Day, or it's the kind that you scratch your head and say, 'This is utterly wrong-headed,'" Baruth said.

On the day he filed his candidacy, Milne placed his own chances of winning at 1 percent. Even so, he and his family have a history of riding through political peril.

Pitfalls and redemption

Milne, who was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1959, lived in Barre until 1964, when the family moved to the nearby town of Washington, in Orange County, where his parents still live.

Milne studied political science in college. He also was shaped by the lessons he received in politics in his family's kitchen, a place where he now returns for political advice.

Buy Photo

Scott Milne, republican candidate for governor, is interviewed at his business, Milne Travel in South Burlington, on June 20.
(Photo11:
GLENN RUSSELL/FREE PRESS
)

His paternal grandfather, Henry Milne, served in the state House representing Barre, worked for U.S. Sen. George Aiken and as state employment commissioner. His father's cousin Jim Milne served as secretary of state from 1995-99.

His father, Don Milne, served one year in the Statehouse, worked as an assistant clerk in the House and Senate and has been House clerk — the chamber's chief parliamentarian and keeper-of-order — since 1993. Don Milne also made unsuccessful bids for the Legislature and for state's attorney, served on the local school board and continues to serve on the town of Washington Selectboard.

His mother, Marion Milne, served three two-year terms in the state House. In 2000, she cast a vote in favor of civil unions. The controversial precursor to same-sex marriage divided Vermont, particularly in the heartland of Orange County, where "Take Back Vermont" was the mantra blaring from signs posted on the sides of barns. Fellow Republicans targeted her in that year's election, and she lost the primary to a former friend. Marion Milne then ran as an independent in the general election, falling short by 1,000 votes.

Scott Milne remembers that his mother knew as she voted on civil unions that she was likely to lose her seat as a result. He supported her all the way, he said.

After she lost the primary, Marion Milne said, Scott helped her build an independent campaign, reaching out to then-Republican U.S. Sen. Jim Jeffords and former Gov. Howard Dean, a Democrat, for their endorsements, which were featured on her campaign fliers.

Scott Milne helped campaign door-to-door for his mother and saw firsthand the raw anger civil unions had generated. So did his then-12-year-old son. At one door, he said, his son was treated to a string of expletives about his grandmother. Milne Travel also lost business in the fallout of civil unions, he said.

"It's too bad what a divisive, traumatic time that was. How that ended up being a party issue on either side," Scott Milne said.

Nine years later, in 2009, when the Legislature passed a bill to legalize same-sex marriage, Republican Gov. Douglas opposed the bill but urged Republicans to vote their conscience rather than demand party allegiance. Lawmakers overrode Douglas' veto of the bill with the help of several Republicans. Scott Milne said he would have signed the bill if he had been in Douglas' place, but he appreciated that Douglas opted against making it a party issue, in contrast to the situation his mother faced.

The challenges that civil unions posed paled in comparison with some of the others the Milne family has faced.

In 1966, when Scott Milne was 7, his father was charged with forging signatures and embezzling $13,000 from three clients he represented as a lawyer. Don Milne, who was a sitting legislator at the time, argued at his nine-day trial — prosecuted by a state's attorney he had challenged for office — that he thought he had the authority to sign for the money and had no intention of defrauding. He was convicted by a jury, disbarred as a lawyer and sentenced to four to six years in prison.

Three months later, Don Milne escaped from the Windsor state prison work farm. He turned himself in a day later and argued the escape was an attempt to have bail set so that he could return home and straighten out his finances, which he had lacked the opportunity to do after he was sentenced. He ultimately served 18 months in prison before being paroled.

Years later, in 1991, Don Milne, who then was employed by the Legislature as assistant House clerk, was pardoned by Democratic Gov. Madeleine Kunin just before she left office. He was elected House clerk by the Legislature in 1993 and has been re-elected every two years since.

Don Milne's story played out prominently in the news media at the time, but 48 years later that history is largely unknown. He is highly regarded as an even-keeled, steady-handed House clerk who has the Legislature's unanimous support.

Douglas, who came to know Don Milne after the legal issue but was aware of most of the story, said he is an example of why people deserve second chances. Milne has more than redeemed his reputation, Douglas said.

"Everyone likes him," Douglas said. "His reputation is one of knowing the process inside and out."

House Speaker Shap Smith, D-Morristown, who has worked with Don Milne for 12 years and said he knew about the long-ago legal troubles, agreed. "He got a second chance, and he made the most of it," Smith said.

Gov. Shumlin said he was unaware of Don Milne's legal troubles and declined to discuss the matter.

As Scott Milne recounted his early years in an interview, he mentioned his parents' legislative stints but not his father's legal issues. When a reporter later came across the situation via a Google search, Scott Milne said it was a devastating event that the family would rather avoid revisiting, but he acknowledged that it also left a lasting mark on him.

"One great thing I learned from that and a lot of experiences in my life is empathy for other people and the situations they're in," he said. "The whole story to me is people make mistakes, and you judge people based on their entire lives. I find my dad to be inspirational."

Don and Marion Milne declined an opportunity to comment.

Five years after Don Milne was released from prison, in 1971, Scott Milne's older brother, Keith, died of a brain tumor at the age of 13. Scott Milne named his son, who is now 27, after his late brother.

Growing business

Scott Milne attended tiny Washington village elementary school, followed by the much-larger Spaulding High School in Barre, where he graduated in 1977. After spending a year at the University of Vermont, he graduated from the University of Redlands in California.

He was living in Arizona in 1987, working as a field engineer for an electronics firm and starting a family, when his parents talked him into returning to Vermont and buying part of their travel agency. Milne settled in Windsor County and took over the Milne Travel office in West Lebanon, N.H., which at the time was a separate corporation.

"That office wasn't showing a great deal of profit," his mother said.

Milne's career trajectory was similar to his political foe, Shumlin. Both returned home to Vermont as young adults to run travel businesses begun by their parents. Both found opportunities for expanding the businesses even as the Internet era upended the travel industry.

"Early on, when we were small, we took a lot of risks where if they didn't work out it could have been catastrophic," Milne said, noting that he held another full-time job for five years. Those risks included hiring a sales agent at twice the money he was making and spending a lot of money on marketing, he said.

He expanded the business by tapping for the first time into the business travel market. Landing BFGoodrich as a client doubled the agency's business. He also began acquiring other travel firms. "We've bought 24 or 25 different business now," he said, including the South Burlington office that used to be Thompson Travel.

His mother credits him with expanding the business. "He brought in a lot of customers," Marion Milne said. "He works very hard."

"I think I've done a reasonable job of building a business," Milne said, adding that those same skills would help him run state government. In the late 1990s, he bought the rest of the firm from his parents.

As head of his company, Milne has seen firsthand the impact of rising health-insurance costs. Last year, his agency was facing a steep increase in rates when the Legislature and the Shumlin administration decided that companies with 50 or fewer employees would be required to buy their coverate on the new health-care exchange the state established under the federal Affordable Care Act.

Milne Travel had just over 50 full-time-equivalent employees. Milne opted to cut some employees' hours and eliminated two positions to bring the company under the mark so that Milne Travel could obtain more affordable coverage through the exchange. It's an indication that Milne was supportive of the concept of the exchange. He said he is less supportive of the reality.

Figuring out what to do was enormously time-consuming, he said. Buying coverage through the exchange allowed Milne Travel to continue offering health insurance at about the same cost as the year before, Milne said, but he worries that those rates are slated to rise at a double-digit page now that the exchange is in place.

Milne said in contrast to Shumlin, he would have opposed making the exchange mandatory for small businesses and would have allowed the federal government to run the exchange rather than the state.

Milne is more dubious of Shumlin's plans to create a first-in-the-nation single-payer, government-financed health coverage system. Milne so far has been unwilling to entirely condemn the idea. He has called single-payer health care "complicated" and said, "I'm extremely suspicious of it. I'm definitely not flat-out opposed to it."

That Milne has been unwilling to condemn Shumlin's plans is a sore point for some Republicans. Patricia Crocker of Essex, a member of the Republican State Committee, said she will wait to hear from all the candidates, but she strongly opposes Shumlin's plans and will consider that in choosing a candidate.

Darcie Johnston, who managed the unsuccessful 2012 gubernatorial campaign of Republican Randy Brock, is more direct. On Facebook, she has been openly criticizing Milne and touting instead Libertarian gubernatorial candidate Dan Feliciano because he opposes single-payer health care. Republicans should be as forceful with their opposition, she said.

"Those voices should be strong voices about what it's going to mean if we continue down the path Peter Shumlin has started," Johnston said.

Baruth, the Democratic senator, noted that Johnston and Brock's criticisms of Shumlin's health care plans failed to gain traction in 2012, but he said Shumlin clearly is vulnerable on the issue, having delayed release of plans for how he would pay for it. Milne has yet to show that he can capitalize on that, Baruth said.

Milne said he looks forward to challenging Shumlin on the issue on the campaign trail.

"I don't even know that Shumlin thinks it's going to work," he said. "I think I have a good shot of winning just on it being a referendum on Peter Shumlin's leadership and management of state government. I hope that I can convince people that I can be a credible leader who will be factual and practical."